I asked my audiologist and she said they are supposed to be skinny
It would help us to have pictures from these 4 angles so we can see all the important parts of the impression. But based on your pictures, looks like primary issue is the canal area. They look quite skinny and there’s a good amount of wax on the impression. Get your ears as clean as possible then do another set
I have had so many discussions with audiologists. They think that because they are trained for the job that they know better. But this is not always the case. They suppose to be correct not skinny. It does indeed look like they are not 100% correct in the inner ear area.
There’s definitely variation in anatomy, some people just have really skinny canals that can make getting tubes in there difficult. In your case the wax build up makes me think that the wax kept you from getting a full impression
Is there any way you could tell if it's just my ear anatomy or because of wax ? I really don't want to pay for an ear impression again just to get the exact same results.
So personally I ended up buying some impression material and making my own. I went the audiologist route initially and got some subpar impressions-they’re used to making them for hearing aids and don’t have to get as much detail or go as deep as we need.
How much did you end up spending on impressions? Did you do it all by yourself or did you have someone to help you? Thanks for the response
I did them my self but would never take the risk of taking someone else’s. I pay 20 to the audicien to have it done so for this price it makes no sense doing it myself. And yes your ears need to be very clean. Also have your ear hair removed. Shaved or burned. And even then impressions do go wrong often. Because they move the gun around and don’t keep it centered. They almost all start making little circles while squeezing the material out. And you are right we need other impressions. More material.
I bought this impression material
Heres the real deal: they make mistakes ALL the time. Its the reason yhe industry has embraced the otoscanners and the move to 3D printing happened so quickly. Your shell will only be as good as your impression. Audiologists THINK THEY HAVE AN OK IMPRESSION, then they send it in and it gets rejected. Most hearing aids are no long full shells. We want a FULL shell. Therefore, we require internal AND external ear landmarks to be in place. Some of these landmarks you can fudge a bit. However, those are the external ones. Internal landmarks, (ie first bend, filled up canal, proper string placement behind the otoblock, second bend, etc.) can not be confidently post fabricated. UE was INFAMOUS for rejections a few years back. Technology has come a LONG way. But, if you are 100% dependent on the impression to get your final shell, the impression HAS to be as close to perfect as possible.
There would not be much to compare to honestly. These would have to be compared in a universal housing for any sort of standard to be set.
What I mean is who has both? Ciem from UE and Diem.
